The U.S. is developing advanced space weapons and rapidly building the Golden Dome missile shield, key Pentagon officials said Monday, even as military leaders announced new steps to protect American airpower assets from low-cost drone and missile attacks by Iran or other adversaries.
Those issues, along with the expanding portfolio of the U.S. Space Force and the nation’s historic shortfall in key munitions stockpiles, took center stage at the annual Air, Space and Cyber Conference just outside Washington. The gathering comes at a consequential moment for the U.S. military, which is simultaneously waging a traditional air campaign in the Middle East and preparing for potential conflict in space with near-peer adversaries such as China.
There were major developments on both fronts Monday. Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink announced that the Air Force expects to conduct the first launchpad test of the Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile next year, adding to the day’s announcements on the Pentagon’s strategic offensive capabilities.
The Sentinel, whose development is led by Northrop Grumman, is intended to replace the now more than 50-year-old Minuteman III program as part of the nuclear triad.
The most significant disclosure was made when Mr. Meink revealed in his keynote address that the U.S. military now has an on-orbit space weapon. It was the first public acknowledgment by a top Pentagon official that American forces have put weapons into orbit.
The Air Force secretary did not elaborate on the nature of the weapon, and Mr. Meink emphasized that his public remarks about it were “very well thought-out,” suggesting he was carefully avoiding the disclosure of classified information.
“The United States now has on-orbit space-control weapons capable of defending the joint force against hostile adversary action,” Mr. Meink said at the Air and Space Forces Association conference in Oxon Hill, Maryland.
Mr. Meink’s announcement appeared designed to signal to China and Russia that the United States is now openly engaged, at a potentially kinetic level, in the growing great-power military competition in space. Both of those nations have made major strides in their own space capabilities in recent years, including Moscow’s pursuit of anti-satellite weapons and Beijing’s investment in space weapons that U.S. defense analysts say are designed to destroy or disrupt American satellites.
“For over a decade, we’ve been talking about the fact, and we’ve expressed concern that the Chinese and the Russians, and especially others [are] developing weapons for space,” Mr. Meink said. “We are focused on making sure we can protect ourselves and operate in that environment, as we’ve done for decades.”
His remarks underscored how space has become a crucial warfighting domain and the potential site of future combat between the U.S. and its chief competitors.
The U.S. Space Force, established in 2019, is playing a central role in fielding America’s space-based weapons and protecting satellites that facilitate military communications, logistics, GPS and targeting on Earth.
The Trump administration has requested a budget of more than $71 billion for the Space Force in fiscal 2027, more than doubling last year’s spending. Those funds would be squeezed if Congress does not pass its additional party-line spending bill for the more than $290 billion in remaining administration requests for the military.
“It touches everything,” Mr. Meink said of the outstanding funding. “It’s all affected, and we’ll have to balance based on where we end up.”
Golden Dome in focus
Russia and China also have invested heavily in their ballistic, hypersonic and other modern missile capabilities that, in theory, could target the American homeland. The U.S. currently lacks a comprehensive missile shield to protect the nation from such threats.
Sen. Deb Fischer, a Nebraska Republican who chairs the Senate Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee, said that must change. She said the nation needs the proposed Golden Dome missile shield, a major defense proposal from President Trump, to alter adversaries’ calculations.
“Right now, we aren’t defended, so that’s not good enough,” Ms. Fischer said during a Golden Dome panel discussion.
“Sure, we can defend against a massive strategic attack on this country. We can deter it. That’s our defense. We can deter it, and that’s through mutually assured extinction,” Ms. Fischer said, referring to established nuclear deterrence doctrine — commonly known as mutually assured destruction, or MAD — in which the assumed U.S. response to a major nuclear weapons attack would be to launch similarly destructive attacks of its own against an adversary.
“That’s not good enough,” she said. “We need to present our president with options, and we need to be able to defend the homeland … so we don’t get into a situation where we are looking at massive destruction.”
Space Force Gen. Michael Guetlein, the administration’s Golden Dome director, told an audience at the conference that the project is on track to “deliver an operational capability by the summer of 2028.”
“We have space-based interceptors on contract. We have command-and-control on contract. We have radars on contract. We have some munitions on contract,” Gen. Guetlein said during a panel discussion alongside Ms. Fischer.
The specific architecture of the Golden Dome is classified, and its funding has been a point of contention between lawmakers and the Pentagon. Space-based missile interceptors are a crucial component of the planned system and are widely expected to be the most expensive piece of the Golden Dome.
A May report from the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the missile shield could cost as much as $1.2 trillion over 20 years. The White House initially estimated that the entire Golden Dome project would cost $175 billion over three years.
Gen. Guetlein recently said the price tag has now risen to roughly $185 billion, with the additional $10 billion to be spent on space-based systems.
Concerns are also growing that money meant for the Golden Dome could be redirected to other military needs, such as replenishing munitions stockpiles drained by the U.S.-Iran war, now in its seventh month.
Funding pressure stemming from the war is threatening to become a political liability for Republicans heading into the November midterm elections. It is also putting strain on the Air Force budget and future planning.
Air Force Gen. Ken Wilsbach, the chief of staff, announced a new point defense weapons system meant to protect key U.S. installations in wartime theaters, including sites in the Middle East that have been aggressively targeted by Iranian drones and missiles.
“For decades, American air and space power has often operated from a position of sanctuary. Those days are over,” Gen. Wilsbach said. “We can no longer treat point defense as a side hustle. We must make it a core function of air and space power.”
He offered few specific details on the initiative but said it will combine “kinetic and non-kinetic capabilities to secure our air bases.” He also announced the establishment of a new Air Force career field in which airmen will focus directly on “base defense.”
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